


Employee Four Two Seven

by QueenEgg



Category: The Stanley Parable
Genre: 4th Wall Breaking, AU where The Narrator keeps his memory after every reset while Stanley always forgets, M/M, Post Real Person Ending, Stanley is a clever boy, The Narrator needs some help, These two NEED each other and their relationship is destroying me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-14
Updated: 2018-07-14
Packaged: 2019-06-10 04:34:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15283752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenEgg/pseuds/QueenEgg
Summary: The Narrator felt a distinct tightness in his jaw as Stanley- or rather, Stanley's body -continued to remain stationary. It was a struggle, trying not to cry, as he begged, pleaded with the man to move.As time passed, he didn't want to accept it, but he knew exactly what had happened. He'd reached the end. Stanley was gone.





	1. Breaking Point

**Author's Note:**

> Im in Hell

It started with him realizing that the person he was watching wasn’t Stanley. Or, perhaps it was? He didn’t have time to try and figure out the truth at the time. All he knew was that whoever was in control of Stanley’s body was disobeying his orders on purpose, whether it was to annoy him, or to challenge him, none of that mattered. The only thing that mattered was Finishing the Game, but the Imposter-in-Stanley’s-Body was making things incredibly difficult for him.

 

So he snapped, and now he had no idea what to do.

 

_ “Stanley, please... I... I need you to make a choice. I need you to walk through the door." _

 

_. . . _

 

_ "Are you listening to me? Can you hear me? Is everything alright?" _

 

The Narrator felt a distinct tightness in his jaw as Stanley- or rather, Stanley's body -continued to remain stationary. It was a struggle, trying not to cry, as he begged, pleaded with the man to move. Yet, even as he made an attempt to reassure “Stanley” that everything was fine, that he could wait for him to make a decision on his own, the tears came unbidden, rolling off his cheeks and splashing again his hands where they shook, just above the console he used to manipulate the Game’s world.

 

As time passed, he didn't want to accept it, but he knew exactly what had happened. He'd reached the end. Stanley was gone.

The man who was once the only other person to share his existence within the realm of the simulation- and, admittedly, his closest companion -was no longer in said simulation. Normally when things went wrong, The Narrator would just... hit reset and they’d just do it all over again. Endlessly repeating the story to completion time after time. No matter what happened after they reached the end, he always knew what happened, but Stanley... poor Stanley never remembered a thing. Even now, The Narrator considered hitting that big red button in the hopes that they’d be sent back to the beginning once more, and he would say the familiar lines, and Stanley would do something, anything at all. But there was the risk that perhaps, this was it. Stanley could be gone forever, and no amount of resetting would ever bring him back.

An involuntary whimper escaped The Narrator at such a thought.

 

Perhaps it was wrong to think- to feel -such a way after all he’d done. He’d put Stanley through numerous terrible situations after all. His actions had driven the man to suicide on no less than five occasions, and he’d blown him up for his insolence at least twice. Then there was the time where he’d indirectly killed him by describing his death-

 

God, it was no surprise that Stanley would take any opportunity to escape him. Had The Narrator been in his place he probably would’ve done the same.

 

Ignoring how awful the dried tears felt on his face, his hand moved to hover over the reset button. He wanted so badly for it to fix everything.  _ ‘Please bring me my Stanley back,’ _ he thought in his head, the words feeling like a prayer as he pressed down and watched the screen in front of him go black before he himself lost consciousness.

 

* * *

 

The world returned in pieces. His arms felt heavier than they’d ever been before as he sat up in his chair and glanced around the room. The Narrator’s head felt like it was packed full of cotton, and there was a ringing in his ears that he couldn’t remember ever experiencing after a reset. However, he reminded himself, this was no ordinary reset.

When his vision regained its clarity, his eyes immediately focused on the screen in front of him, and on the person sitting in the chair in the tiny office.

 

The Narrator tried to keep his mic from picking up the sound of his breath catching.

 

His hands were shaking even as he blindly reached for the game’s script somewhere off to his left, silently rejoicing when he managed to grab it and flip it to the first page, his heart weighing heavily in his chest as he stared at the man on his monitor.

 

Holding up the sheet of paper with his lines on it, The Narrator didn’t risk taking his eyes off the screen for even a second as he carefully spoke the first line of the Game.

_ “This is the story of a man named Stanley,” _ he said, waiting for Stanley to show any sign that he was there.

 

And he continued to wait while the tears restarted themselves anew, with “Stanley”s body remaining motionless and still in the office chair.

  
  
  



	2. Epoch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stanley realizes he isn't alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear this isn't self-insertion I just wanted an excuse to play with dialogue-setting-story

Stanley blinked once. Twice. A third time for good measure. Then he rubbed his eyes in small circles as he tried to will away the impending headache that he knew was coming. When he looked down at his computer he couldn’t help but sigh as orders continued to fill the screen. Looking up at the ceiling, he couldn’t help but wish for a voice with a British accent to start echoing about in his head and start describing his every move.

As it was, he would have to do with the one he currently had.

With a startled jump, Stanley accidentally slammed his knee into his desk with surprise as he shook his head from side to side, eyes wide open with shock.

 _‘Can you hear me?’_ he thought. The answer to that question was a solid yes, in a sense. Stanley looked only the slightest bit confused before realization dawned upon his face. Standing out of his chair, he peeked outside of his office for the briefest of moments before closing the door and locking it from the inside, sitting back down again before tilting his gaze skyward- or rather, ceiling-ward.

 _‘Are you like my Narrator?’_ he asked the voice in his head, hopefulness present even in his thoughts as he wrung his hands together. After all, the voice was providing a kind of narration, if not the one he was used to. It only took a moment for Stanley to become excited as he began to understand what was going on. His face split into a youthful grin, full of hope and promise. _‘Please, can you take me back to where I was before? I don’t like it here anymore, it isn’t the same without him. Though I don’t understand why I miss that dreadful place so much.’_

His thoughts were aflutter with his brief memories of The Narrator. There was very little he had to go off of, but even though Stanley couldn’t remember his entire time in the Game, playing out the Story that had been written for him, he knew what it felt like to be there, and how much he missed the voice that told him what to do.

This new voice wouldn’t tell him what to do, but it could point him in the right direction at least.

 _‘Thank you!’_ Stanley thought, his excitement bleeding outward as he hugged himself tightly. _‘I just want to get back to him.’_

Now, he had that choice.

Filled with elation, the man in the office spun himself about in his chair. He was eager to be reunited with that voice, the one who he had shared his very existence with. Stanley hoped he wasn’t too lonely without someone to boss around, though there was a flicker of worry that he couldn’t snuff out. The idea that perhaps, he’d been replaced, and if he returned to the Game, his Narrator wouldn’t need or want him anymore.

Despite this, Stanley was determined to go back, even if only it was to give the other man a proper goodbye.

 _‘Alright, how do I get out of this place?’_ he wondered. Thinking back to the circumstances surrounding his separation from The Narrator, Stanely remembered...

Well, he didn’t remember much.

In his last moments before everything had gone dark, and he’d woken up in his old office with his fellow employees there, The Narrator was yelling at him over... something. The man had been screaming at him, commanding him to speak, but Stanley couldn’t. He didn’t even know if he was capable of speaking. Even now, as one of his hands unconsciously drifted towards his throat, Stanley wondered if his inability to talk was the reason he’d been removed from the Game. He hoped not.

Still, even with this insight, he had no idea what had caused him to be ejected from the simulation, or how he was supposed to return.

Or, maybe, this wasn’t about going back to the Game. Perhaps... it was about bringing The Narrator to himself.

It was as if a lightbulb had gone off in Stanley’s head, the enthusiastic office worker in him eagerly pressing the button of inspiration that would help him find a way to be reunited with the owner of that familiar voice.

He knew he couldn’t do it alone, but thankfully, he would have The Author to help him.

**Author's Note:**

> come talk to me about this game on my timboblr (@eggroyalty) if you want to hear me cry over these two


End file.
